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Transcription by PWOP Productions, http://www.pwop.com
Page 12 of 18
Pat Hynds on why projects fail
April 16, 2009
of the time, think about the productivity boost to the
country and to the world.
Richard Campbell:
Sure.
Pat Hynds:
If we can get it down to where
project failure is a rarity instead of almost a certainty
in some cases.
Carl Franklin:
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Communication is so key; and I remember getting a
call one day from this project that I was working on
and hey, what's up? And the guy said it doesn't work.
And I said, well, can you be a little more explicit? He
said it doesn't fucking work.
Pat Hynds:
That's pretty explicit.
Richard Campbell:
Thanks for the input.
Carl Franklin:
Yeah, thanks. That's
awesome. Hey, I'll get right on that.
Pat Hynds:
Yeah. Well, how about if you
make it work, how's that?
Carl Franklin:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
The other thing -- I mean,
estimation is a tough thing. It's always possible to
mis-estimate but one of the things you do is you tell
people not only what you're going to do but what
you're not going to do.
Richard Campbell:
Right.
Pat Hynds:
So in other words, if I give you
a spec I'm going to give you everything this document
says and nothing more. In other words, if it's not
shown or described in detail in this document, it will
not be done. That puts great focus on the person
reading the spec.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
And you need to be fair with
them and say you have to understand that this is
exactly what I'm building and when we're done then
this is going to cost you X thousand dollars and if you
expected something else to be in there, it won't be.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah, just expect it won't be
there, and if you're going to add it later it's going to
cost more.
Pat Hynds:
Right and you have to be very
explicit about CYA. It sounds bad but you have to
destroy any hope they have that you're thinking the
way that they're thinking...
Richard Campbell:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
By it being explicit. I mean, in
web projects we state explicitly what resolutions we
will support and none others.
Carl Franklin:
Yeah.
Richard Campbell:
Right.
Pat Hynds:
What browser versions we will
support and no others, what back-end database
versions and libraries we will support and no others,
that kind of thing.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah and the challenge is
actually getting specific enough that you cover all the
details.
Pat Hynds:
I find for everything you say
you're going to do, you have to define one or two
things you're not going to do.
Richard Campbell:
Right, in fact you end up with
more things you're not going to do than what you are
going to do.
Pat Hynds:
Right but I also find that if you
set expectations early, you get to a much better result
but a lot of people are afraid to set those
expectations, they're afraid they will lose the deal.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
And the deal can be working
for your boss, it could be that they will pick a different
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